Productivity measurement at Statistics Netherlands

Productivity measurement at Statistics Netherlands

In 2007 the National Accounts of the Netherlands have been expanded with a set of multi factor productivity (MFP) statistics. There are two guiding principles. The first is to construct a system of productivity statistics at the industry branch and macro level that is, to the extent possible, consistent with National Accounts statistics. By doing this we are joining Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Switzerland, and the United States; see OECD (2006) for a summary of all these systems.

The second principle is that the system should not depend on a particular school of thought about the functioning of an economy. In particular we do not adopt the behavioural and structural assumptions of the neo-classical production framework. As a result, MFP change cannot be interpreted as exclusively the result of technological change (progress or regress), but may also be due to scale effects, efficiency improvements, and other factors.

On the basis of these two principles, this paper presents the computation methods and main results. A range of sensitivity analyses were carried out to investigate the effects of various assumptions on the productivity statistics at the industry and macro level. The most important of these assumptions concern the rate of return to capital and the imputed labour income of self-employed persons.